Sandra McCartney survived 10 minutes of clinical death — SkimNews
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- Sandra McCartney collapsed from cardiac arrest on New Year's Eve 2019 while on holiday in Spain, was clinically dead for 10 minutes, and required six defibrillator shocks and five adrenaline shots before medics restored a normal heart rhythm.
- Doctors later diagnosed Sandra McCartney with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a genetic condition she had never known she had; if untreated, 50% of men and 30% of women with FH develop coronary heart disease by age 55, and there is a 50% chance of passing it to each child.
- The British Heart Foundation estimates more than a quarter of a million people in the UK have FH, but more than two-thirds of FH carriers are never diagnosed — making it what the Belfast Trust calls a 'silent condition'.
- The Belfast Trust runs the UK's highest-rate FH identification programme, deploying specialist nurses across Northern Ireland to contact and offer testing to relatives of every diagnosed patient.
- Sandra McCartney spent 11 days on a ventilator in Spain, suffered cracked ribs from CPR, developed PTSD, had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator fitted, and needed a wheelchair to fly home in February due to severe muscle wastage.
- FH affects roughly 1 in every 250 to 500 people, can be diagnosed with a straightforward blood test, and is treatable with standard cholesterol-lowering medications plus periodic cholesterol checks once identified.
Why it matters: Northern Ireland's Belfast Trust runs the UK's highest-rate FH screening programme, yet the British Heart Foundation estimates more than two-thirds of the UK's quarter-million-plus FH carriers remain undiagnosed. Sandra's case shows FH often strikes without warning — she considered herself 'fit, healthy' with no prior health worries, and her cardiac arrest was her first symptom.
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